The answer to Baton Rouge's traffic woes doesn't lie in simply building more bridges and roads and widening the interstates, a team of IBM researchers said Friday. As you might expect to hear from one of the biggest technology firms in the world, the answer lies in technology.

The team of six researchers from the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge presented their initial conclusions Friday, after spending about three weeks in Baton Rouge doing in-depth research on the city's transportation network.

IBM's Smarter Cities program asks cities to come to them with a problem -- in Baton Rouge's case, transportation. If they are selected, the company then sends a team of consultants, considered a grant valued at $500,000. Baton Rouge was one of 16 cities around the world that won the competition this year to work with an IBM team.

The researchers didn't get into the specifics of whether Baton Rouge needs an interstate loop, or if Government Street should be narrowed. Instead, they looked at the broader approach the region should take with road and transit projects.

Their conclusion was that data, data, and more data will help local leaders figure out ways to prioritize road projects that will actually improve traffic -- objectively, without letting politics get in the way.

"The strengths (of the assets the region already has) outweigh the challenges, and I'm confident you guys have the ability to make this transformation happen," said Marie Wallace, an IBM analytics strategist from Dublin, Ireland.

Wallace said she's "felt like a shrink" the past few weeks, as locals shared their traffic woes with her and her colleagues. But while everybody agrees that traffic and transportation in Baton Rouge are a problem, there are a lot of conflicting ideas on how to solve it. The best way to approach that situation, the IBM team says, is armed with the best information available.

Here's the basics of what the IBM team is recommending:

- Set up a data exchange system, so that all of the various agencies in the region can share transportation-related data. That way, the city-parish can more efficiently and effectively use information that the state Department of Transportation and Development has been collecting, and vice versa, for example.

- Create a new governmental board to spearhead the creation of this data exchange system, and to guide the use of data and technology in transportation-related issues going forward. It's not yet clear who would be on this board, and the logistics of how it would be formed are fuzzy. But the idea is to bring together a group of elected and appointed officials from around the region, as well as other stakeholders.

- Hire a Chief Innovation Officer, in charge of the IT and analytics systems.

- Use social media and other methods to work more closely with the community and get their input and buy-in.

Once local planners have the kind of in-depth data the IBM researchers are talking about -- for example, information that would not just show that there are a lot of accidents at an intersection, but get to the heart of why those accidents are happening there -- they can use it to set priorities.

If planners know objectively which road project will help improve traffic the most, they can know which one it makes the most sense to prioritize. Theoretically, they won't have to get bogged down in the politics of different local leaders lobbying for their preferred projects in their parts of the region -- there would be an objective method for determining what would be most beneficial.

Local transportation experts do currently use data in their work. But what IBM is going for is a deeper level of data and analysis.

IBM's Chai Wah Wu gave the example of traffic lights. Currently, Baton Rouge uses traffic data to time many of its stoplights in an effort to improve traffic flow. But by having even more in-depth data, the timing of those lights could continuously be changing to improve flow, for example, if a road project a half mile away is causing traffic patterns to change. Or in the case of CATS, having more and better data about traffic patterns can help the bus service further refine its routes.

Mayor Kip Holden said he's "very excited" about the proposals, and that he hopes that making better use of objective data will help break down some of the barriers between different agencies who don't always communicate with each other well. For example, he said, a group of local legislators who earlier this year proposed creating an "inner loop" did so without consulting the city-parish or citizens in the area. Hopefully, he said, taking a data-driven approach will help the disparate groups work together better.

"It's time we check the ego at the door," Holden said.

The IBM researchers are set to leave town tomorrow, but will continue to work on their final report to the city. That's expected to be sent within the next two months.